And Then There Were Two
by midnightkiss56
Summary: Just a short story idea I felt like writing down. Please read, and tell me what you think.
1. Chapter 1

**This is just a short story I thought up today, no big story, but I would like a few reviews. (Just a side note. This story disregards Haibara, so that's why the title says two instead of three.) Thanks! Enjoy.**

And Then There Were Two

Chapter 1

Ran had always enjoyed walking in the rain. She didn't know why, but even just the sound of rain helped clear her mind. It was because of this that she decided to walk home from school on the rainy afternoon that would change her life.

The only thing that ruined what seemed to her the ideal afternoon was her cold. She had had a cold for a few days, and it annoyed her to the point where she was carrying a container of pills with her wherever she went. As Ran sneezed again, she gripped her umbrella tighter and heaved a sigh. She hoped she hadn't passed her cold on to Conan, who got sick all the time and was in fact already showing clear signs that he was getting sick. The sixteen-year old groaned as she massaged her pounding forehead.

_Looks like I'll have to take more medicine._ Ran stopped to fish her medicine and a water bottle out of her bag, but just as she was pulling both items out someone ran into her from behind. She was suddenly on the ground with her things scattered around her. As she began to stammer out an apology though, she realized the stranger who had run into her had gone.

She sat dumbfounded in the rain for a moment, which of course wasn't helping her cold. Then she picked up her stuff and sat down on a bench in front of a nearby store. Ran once again took out her water bottle and case of pills, but hesitated to open the case. The container didn't look like hers, and it took her a moment to realize that it looked more like her father's.

"Dad must have grabbed the wrong case when I asked him to get mine this morning," she muttered. However, she knew even though the case was different her dad only put pills for headaches in his. She sighed again, and looked out at the wet street. _I guess it can't be helped. I do have a headache after all._ Ran popped open the container and rolled her eyes. Only one pill was left. Mouri Kogorou's frequent hangovers were most likely to blame for that. She swallowed the pill quickly, and when she had finished putting her stuff in her bag she remembered where she was supposed to be going.

The teenager stood up wearily and began to trudge back the way she had come from. Conan was at the professor's house, and she was supposed to go pick him up. _At least it's closer than my own house_.

**So what do you think so far? It's a slow beginning I know but this is a short story and I just want to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading. My next chapter should be up by tomorrow.**


	2. Chapter 2

**By the way, I just realized I didn't say this in my first chapter. I do not own any of the characters from this manga/anime. I simply enjoy writing about them, and I do have a few more story ideas swimming around in my head. Enjoy!**

Chapter 2

Shinichi, or at the time Conan, stared out at the rain from Proffesor Agasa's window. There was a feeling that he just couldn't shake off. He knew Ran was only a few minutes late, but he couldn't help but worry that something bad had happened to her. He wondered if she had ever felt the same feeling for him. "Shinichi?" Agasa called from the hallway. "Shinichi!"

"In here!" he responded; wincing inwardly at his tiny voice. He suddenly hated himself for being so small. _I was stupid enough to follow those guys. Why couldn't I just keep out of other people's business for once? _Conan rested his chin on his hand. Every day he was small he felt farther away from Ran - despite how close to him she was.

"Ah! There you are," the professor greeted as he entered the room. "I didn't know where you went." He stood in the center of the room for a moment, but it seemed like the boy sitting by the window hadn't really heard him. Agasa cleared his throat awkwardly and shuffled his feet. "What's bothering you?" he suddenly asked. Conan finally turned around to face him.

"What do you mean?" The old professor smiled at him knowingly.

"I've known you for a very long time, Shinichi. I can tell when you have something on your mind."

"I'm just wondering where Ran could've gotten to is all," Conan lied. At least he only told part of the truth. There was only one person in the world who he really wanted to talk to about the millions of problems swarming in his head, but he knew it wasn't possible. "I'm fine," he added for good measure. That was when he saw her, or at least her umbrella. _Looks like I was worried for nothing._ He hopped down from the chair he had been sitting on and went calmly but quickly down the stairs to greet Ran. By the time he reached the door she was already kneeling down to remove her wet shoes. A wide grin spread across his face as he approached her, but her name died on his lips before he could say it.

Ran was eerily still as she knelt before him. One hand was shaking as it gripped her shoelace, and the other seemed to be holding her upright on the floor. Conan knew that there was no way she couldn't have heard him on the staircase. Something had to be wrong. "Ran-neechan?" he called softly; putting on his best concerned but childish voice. At the sound of her name Ran finally looked up at him. She blinked for a few seconds in confusion until she remembered where she was. She got to her feet slowly and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Conan-kun," she said with a slight smile. "I haven't been feeling my best today." He nodded at her, but he could see much more pain in her eyes as the professor suggested she go lie down for a while and she walked past them to his sitting room. _Why do people always insist on hiding things from children? If something serious was going on, I'd want to know. _Then Conan realized that that was just his own opinion, and he couldn't really remember if when he actually was a child he thought the same way. He stole one last look at Ran, who was curled up in two blankets on Professor Agasa's sofa. Then he started to make his way back upstairs. Something still didn't feel right though. He just didn't know what it was.

**Please review. Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow. I haven't posted two chapters in one day for a long time. Anyway, once again I do not own these characters. Enjoy!**

Chapter 3

Ran curled in on herself as she lay on the sofa; stifling the soft moan that escaped her lips. _Why does everything hurt so much? I feel like I'm on fire. _She kept the involuntary sounds erupting from her throat quiet though. She didn't want Conan to hear her. However, after only a few agonizing minutes, Ran could take the pain no more and she cried out loudly. Then the world went dark.

Conan was up and running before Ran's scream had even ended, and he slid down the banister on the stairs to reach her faster. _Damn! I knew I shouldn't have left her alone!_ He slid to a stop and jumped off the bottom of the stairs. Then he stood frozen in place at the entrance to the room, and didn't move until he could hear Agasa's clumsy footsteps on the stairs. Even when he moved, he moved slowly; still too much in awe of what he could see to rush to her. Ran was on the floor in a mess of blankets, and her school skirt still remained on the sofa. The blankets were still covering her, but were tangled about her only up to her waist, where her suddenly oversized shirt began. Her hands didn't even reach out of her sleeves, and her hair had somehow shortened to her shoulders. _It can't be... How? ...What happened?_

All of a sudden the little girl before him began to stir, and she moaned softly as she shifted into a kneeling position. "Ran?" Conan said softly as the professor gasped behind him. His mind was so focused on the situation that he forgot to call her by the name he was supposed to.

She turned to face him; slowly blinking and bleary eyed. "Conan-k-" Ran suddenly covered her mouth with both of her hands. Her tiny voice had frightened her, and she became even more afraid when she pulled her small hands away from her face. She glanced around herself quickly, and pulled up her shirt in front of her as she realized it was so big it was slipping off her shoulders. When she felt her flat chest through the fabric though, she noticed she didn't have any reason to cover up anymore. _What happened to me?_ "How did I end up like this?" she demanded; glancing from one astonished face to the other.

"That's what I was about to ask you," Conan responded. He sighed; knowing that if what he thought had happened was true, they would all be in for a long night.

"Tell us everything that happened to you on the way here today," Professor Agasa ordered; attempting to maintain some control over the situation. Ran sat up straighter and pulled her shirt closer around her tiny body as she told her story. When she was finished, Conan sat down beside her.

"May I see the container you were talking about?" he inquired. Ran nodded and handed over what she had thought to be her father's container of headache medicine. She watched Conan as he intently studied the container, and a sudden thought struck her. _What if I'm not the only person this happened to?_ "This container has no initials on it." Conan muttered; finally meeting her eyes. "It is the same type as your dad's, but I've seen his. It has his initials on it."

"You should have looked over it more carefully," Ran heard Shinichi scolding in her mind. She shook off her thoughts of him as Conan looked almost disappointedly into the empty container before handing it back to the professor with a head-shake. The three of them sat in silence for a moment; each one absorbed in his or her own thoughts.

"What am I supposed to do?" Ran finally asked in desperation. Conan lowered his head.

"The same thing I had to do," he murmured without looking up. Agasa stood up at his words.

"W-what do you mean?" Ran stammered back. Conan didn't respond though. She tried to look to the professor for guidance, but he had already left them alone in the room. He knew what was about to happen.

**Dun! Dun! Dun! Cliffhanger! (Sort of...) Please leave a review. The next chapter should be up by either late tonight or tomorrow. Thanks!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ahhh! Last chapter! Once again I don't own any of these characters. I hope you enjoy. **

Chapter 4

As soon as Agasa was gone, Ran turned her intense gaze back to Conan. "What did you mean?" she asked again in her tiny voice. Conan didn't answer her right away. He wouldn't even look at her, but she could see the pain, sorrow, and fear that no child should ever have to experience in his eyes. "I want to know," she whispered; sliding her hand over to cover his. "I want...to understand. ...Please." He sighed and stood up. _It's now or never. _

Ran stood up too as Conan took off his glasses. His back was to her, but somehow she knew his face held an expression of defeat. He turned to face her without a word. He had tried so many times to tell her, and so many times to keep his identity a secret that he wasn't sure what to say. Ran figured it out on her own though, and he noticed the tears running down her cheeks. She grabbed ahold of the blanket around her and her shirt with one hand, and used the other to slap him across the face.

"Shinichi, you bastard!" she shouted angrily. "How could you do this to me? All this time you kept telling me you were on stupid cases, and you were with me the whole damn time!" Ran suddenly dropped back down on the sofa. It was as if the anger and hatred had been drawn out of her, and her tiny body couldn't support itself without it. "Y-you...you lied to me..." she murmured; her voice shaking and barely rising above a whisper. "I cried for you, you know. ...I didn't know what to think...and...and..." Ran sighed as she trailed off. She had run out of things to say, and her initial anger was beginning to dissipate at the sight of his remorseful expression. _I want to hear _his_ side._ She patted the sofa next to her; as if forgiving a puppy who she had just punished for misbehaving. "Sit down...Sit down and tell me everything."

He did as he was told, and she listened intently; hanging onto every word that left his mouth. Her anger turned to pity, and then to understanding as she realized just how serious their situation was. Then, as the sun was just beginning to disappear beyond the horizon, he finished. She knew everything, and she understood that she would have to be just as careful as he was. Ran couldn't help but smile though at the sick irony of hearing such depressing things come from a child's mouth, but her smile quickly fled as she remembered something else.

"Wait. When the diplomat died and you were sick, was that REALLY you the entire time?" Conan smiled.

"Yes it was, and the reason I became so sick was because that drink Hattori gave me gave me back my old body for a short amount of time," he told her. "Of course, I built up an immunity almost immediately so it didn't work a second time." He shrugged and stared back down at the floor. He wasn't sure if Ran was still angry with him, and small or not his cheek still stung from her slap. _She probably left a hand print._ The two miniature teens sat in silence for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, Ran's shoulders began to shake as she began to chuckle. Pretty soon, she was laughing loudly, and trying desperately to keep her shirt on her body as she shook with laughter. _What the hell is she laughing for?_ Conan gaped at her in amazement and fear. He knew that Ran was either seriously laughing, or he was about to be hit again.

"You..." she started as she tried to catch her breath. "You... thought... THAT'S why I found you trying to drink that stuff?" Ran started laughing again as he blushed beside her.

"I don't see why it's so funny," he retorted. "You would've done the same thing, wouldn't you?" That finally got her to stop laughing, but she kept her huge grin plastered on her face. _It's so absurd I can't even really be angry at him anymore. _

"I suppose you're right," she replied as she finally calmed down. "You know," she said quietly. "Even if we never get back to normal, at least we get to grow up together again." Conan let himself relax again. He knew she was right, and he felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He turned back to Ran.

"Whatever we do decide to do though," he murmured. "We'll do it together."

Professor Agasa leaned back against the wall in relief. "I'm so glad that didn't turn out TOO ugly," he muttered to himself. Then he straightened up, and opened the door; ready to help them again as he always had and always would.

THE END

**Yes I know the ending is corny! I'm sorry! I am not good at writing non-sappy happy endings! It's something I really need to work on. Anyway. I want to thank anyone who read this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it for the past few days. A special thanks to those who reviewed, and if you haven't reviewed yet I would LOVE to hear what you think of this story. I will most definitely be writing about these characters again in the near future, and I really hope you'll read whatever other nonsense I decide to post. Thanks so much!**


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